Efficacy of Two Lion Conservation Programs in Maasailand, Kenya

Hazzah, Leela; Dolrenry, Stephanie; Naughton, Lisa; Edwards, Charles; Mwebi, Ogeto; Kearney, Fiachra; Frank, Laurence G.

doi:10.1111/cobi.12244

Cited by 174 publications

(176 citation statements)

References 34 publications

(61 reference statements)

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“…The African lion (Panthera leo) exemplifies the challenges of carnivore conservation: widespread habitat loss (4), extensive prey base depletion (5-7), indiscriminate retaliatory or preemptive killing to protect humans and their livestock (8)(9)(10), poorly regulated sport hunting (11)(12)(13)(14)(15)(16)(17)(18), and demand for traditional African and Chinese medicines (19). Although lions are relatively well-studied compared with most large felids, regional-scale population estimates remain scant across much of its range (20), and population surveys are generally repeated at irregular intervals because of the inherent difficulty of counting lions (21,22) and shortage of funds for systematic surveys.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Lion ( Panthera leo ) populations are declining rapidly across Africa, except in intensively managed areas

Bauer

Chapron

Nowell³

et al. 2015

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

285

254

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We compiled all credible repeated lion surveys and present time series data for 47 lion (Panthera leo) populations. We used a Bayesian state space model to estimate growth rate-λ for each population and summed these into three regional sets to provide conservation-relevant estimates of trends since 1990. We found a striking geographical pattern: African lion populations are declining everywhere, except in four southern countries (Botswana, Namibia, South Africa, and Zimbabwe). Population models indicate a 67% chance that lions in West and Central Africa decline by onehalf, while estimating a 37% chance that lions in East Africa also decline by one-half over two decades. We recommend separate regional assessments of the lion in the World Conservation Union (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species: already recognized as critically endangered in West Africa, our analysis supports listing as regionally endangered in Central and East Africa and least concern in southern Africa. Almost all lion populations that historically exceeded ∼500 individuals are declining, but lion conservation is successful in southern Africa, in part because of the proliferation of reintroduced lions in small, fenced, intensively managed, and funded reserves. If management budgets for wild lands cannot keep pace with mounting levels of threat, the species may rely increasingly on these southern African areas and may no longer be a flagship species of the once vast natural ecosystems across the rest of the continent.L arge carnivores are generally declining worldwide (1), but trends vary according to geography (2) and the severity of threats posed to humans (3). The African lion (Panthera leo) exemplifies the challenges of carnivore conservation: widespread habitat loss (4), extensive prey base depletion (5-7), indiscriminate retaliatory or preemptive killing to protect humans and their livestock (8-10), poorly regulated sport hunting (11-18), and demand for traditional African and Chinese medicines (19). Although lions are relatively well-studied compared with most large felids, regional-scale population estimates remain scant across much of its range (20), and population surveys are generally repeated at irregular intervals because of the inherent difficulty of counting lions (21, 22) and shortage of funds for systematic surveys. No reliable data are available for Angola, Central African Republic, Somalia, South Sudan, and Ethiopia. Furthermore, systematic surveys are absent from large areas of potential lion habitat in countries with a rich tradition of wildlife research, such as Zambia and Tanzania.With widespread declines in many reserves (23) and rapid deterioration of the lion's status in a substantial portion of the species' range (24), there is growing concern that lion numbers may be declining rapidly, leading to the lion's consideration for listing as threatened or endangered on the US Endangered Species Act. The lion is currently listed as vulnerable on the World Conservation Union (IUCN) Red List and would be considered endangered i...

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mentioning

confidence: 99%

Lion ( Panthera leo ) populations are declining rapidly across Africa, except in intensively managed areas

Bauer

Chapron

Nowell³

et al. 2015

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

285

254

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…Indeed, this research has shown that despite there being common ground between stakeholders on what actions to take to improve coexistence, there were still a number of participants who did not agree with the consensus. Unless they also feel that their views are addressed, they may rebel against a mitigation scheme, which could have serious consequences on the future of carnivore conservation (Hazzah et al, 2014;Turnbull, Cain, & Roemer, 2013). It may well be that lethal control is still included as part of a conflict mitigation scheme, particularly for small stock farmers managing non-threatened but potentially highlydamaging species such as jackals and caracals.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In communities that were meant to receive compensation but where payment was not received, locals became frustrated at the scheme. This could result in widespread poaching of predators if communities do not receive what is perceived to be adequate reimbursement for damage to property (Hazzah et al, 2014).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…If racism, domination and exploitation continue, workers will have little motivation to undertake jobs effectively to protect livestock from predators. Although progress has been made in improving human-carnivore coexistence in many areas of the world (Hazzah et al, 2014;Zabel & Holm-Muller, 2008), we would do well to appreciate the complexity of the factors that are influencing this situation (Madden & McQuinn, 2014) before jumping in with quick fixes.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In recent decades, some financial incentive schemes have led to positive results for both people and carnivores (Mishra, Allen, Carthy, et al, 2003;Zabel & Holm-Muller, 2008) -although their use has been met with some criticism (Dickman, Macdonald, & Macdonald, 2011;Hazzah et al, 2014). What has become clear is that there is no "silver bullet" to fixing this problem and rather each conservation situation requires a unique approach tailored to meet the contextspecific socio-ecological conditions (Hoare, 2015).…”

Section: Achieving Coexistence With Carnivoresmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Understanding the human dimensions of coexistence between carnivores and people: A case study in Namibia

Rust¹

2018

Preprint

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Many carnivore populations were in decline throughout much of the 20 th century, but due to recent conservation policies, their numbers are stabilising or even increasing in some areas of the world. This, compounded with human population growth, has caused increased livestock depredation by carnivores, which threatens farmer livelihoods, particularly those in developing countries such as Namibia. How to resolve this so-called "conflict" between carnivores and livestock farmers remains challenging, in part because some mitigation strategies have proven somewhat ineffective or unacceptable. By using a case-study approach on the commercial farmlands of northcentral Namibia, I aimed to understand the complexity of the human dimensions affecting coexistence between carnivores and people in an unprotected working landscape. Specifically, my objectives were to 1) develop a participatory decisionmaking exercise to analyse the views of stakeholders on how they would like carnivores to be managed in unprotected lands, 2) understand how the media framed financial incentives to improve human-carnivore coexistence, and 3) determine if there were any underlying social, economic or political causes of negative human-carnivore interactions on commercial livestock farms.To answer objective 1, I developed a new decision-making exercise that combined Q-methodology and the Delphi technique to determine whether a diverse group of stakeholders could agree on how to manage carnivores on commercial farmland. A strong agreement was reached by participants: providing conservation education and training on livestock husbandry were acceptable and effective ways to improve coexistence with carnivores. This new also method highlighted areas of disagreement between stakeholders and showed that there were two different narratives on how carnivores should be managed. This method could be used by policy makers to help with participatory decision-making for resolving other conservation conflicts.To answer objective 2, I undertook content analysis of national newspapers to determine how the media framed articles on financial incentives to mitigate this conservation conflict. The most common (30%) financial incentive discussed was compensation -many (61%) of these articles framed compensation positively. Niki Rust © 2015However, upon categorising these articles into those where respondents were enrolled in compensation schemes compared with those who were not, a clear pattern emerged: articles were more likely (89%) to be framed ambivalently or negatively when respondents had experience of this financial incentive compared with respondents that did not. These results can help conservationists plan more effective communication interventions and anticipate issues that can affect the success of mitigation strategies.To answer objective 3, I undertook eight months of participant observation on livestock farms and interviewed 69 respondents and found that reported livestock depredation was associated with increased instances of poaching of wildl...

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What is the evidence that counter‐wildlife crime interventions are effective for conserving African, Asian and Latin American wildlife directly threatened by exploitation? A systematic map protocol

Rytwinski

Öckerman

Taylor

et al. 2021

Ecol Sol and Evidence

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Human activities are driving a global biodiversity crisis. In response, a broad range of conservation actions have been implemented. With finite resources available, and a rapidly narrowing window, the scientific and policy communities have acknowledged the need to better understand the effectiveness of interventions for conserving threatened species. Given the recent emphasis on the use of counter wildlife crime interventions (i.e. those that directly protect wildlife from illegal harvest, detect and sanction rule‐breakers, and interdict and control illegal wildlife commodities), there is a clear need to summarize the available evidence on biological and threat reduction outcomes of such actions to help make evidence‐informed management and funding decisions. Here, we present a protocol for a systematic map that will collate the existing body of literature addressing the effectiveness of counter‐wildlife crime interventions for protecting targeted species. Our focus will be on select species or species groups directly threatened by exploitation (i.e. illegal harming whether by harvest as a resource or for control/persecution) and native to Africa, Asia and Latin America, which are regions that have experienced significant wildlife populations declines. The systematic map will aim to capture available evidence found in commercially published and grey literature. We will search for the literature using four publication databases, Google Scholar, 36 specialist websites and databases and sources identified through a call for evidence among relevant networks. Eligibility screening will be conducted at two stages: (1) title and abstract and (2) full text. Relevant information from included papers will be extracted and entered into a searchable, coded database (MS‐Excel). Narrative synthesis and descriptive statistics will describe the key characteristics of the relevant evidence base (e.g. geographic location, species, interventions, direct threats, outcomes and study designs). Using visual heat maps, we will identify key knowledge gaps warranting further research and clusters of evidence that could serve as topics for future systematic reviews. The resulting map will guide further exploration on evaluating the effectiveness of counter‐wildlife crime interventions, and aid in building an evidence base that supports both management and funding decisions to ensure efficient use of limited resources and maximal conservation benefits.

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Efficacy of Two Lion Conservation Programs in Maasailand, Kenya

Cited by 174 publications

References 34 publications

Lion ( Panthera leo ) populations are declining rapidly across Africa, except in intensively managed areas

Lion ( Panthera leo ) populations are declining rapidly across Africa, except in intensively managed areas

Understanding the human dimensions of coexistence between carnivores and people: A case study in Namibia

What is the evidence that counter‐wildlife crime interventions are effective for conserving African, Asian and Latin American wildlife directly threatened by exploitation? A systematic map protocol

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